The present invention relates to video favorites.
Television broadcasting technology has improved tremendously since its inception. Television signals are broadcasted on the airwaves, broadcast through cable, fibre, and networked connections, and broadcast via satellites. The number of available stations readily accessible today has increased from one to hundreds, if not thousands, of stations. To select a program to view, many viewers simply use the remote control to “channel surf” until they find a channel that has a desirable program. Channel surfing refers to the process of using the channel “+” or “−” key on the remote control to sequentially view each channel on the display. Although some viewers find channel surfing among hundreds of stations enjoyable, most viewers prefer a more direct method for selecting a program to view.
Some systems, for example, the RCA Direct Satellite System or DSS (Direct Satellite System and DSS are trademarks of Hughes Communications, a division of General Motors Corp.), provide a television channel selection guide which displays a listing of the channels typically in numeric order and the titles of the programs broadcasted or to be broadcasted on the channels. A simplified block diagram of such a guide is illustrated in FIG. 1. The viewer or user of the system may then select the channel by entering in the number or selecting the device. The system responds by removing the guide displayed and tuning to the station selected and displaying the broadcasting signals of the station.
This system has a number of drawbacks. The guide provides only the title of the program. To get additional information, such as a written description of the program, the user must select an information button which responds by bringing up a second layer of the menu having the program description. Thus, as the number of stations increase, the efficiency of reviewing programs and program descriptions decreases. Furthermore, many viewers prefer to view the actual broadcast before determining whether to select that station to watch. Therefore, the user has to select each station to view, and subsequently go back to the channel guide in order to view program titles on other channels. Of course, the user can always channel surf by skipping from channel to channel in sequence using the channel “+” or “−” buttons.
Typical television viewers will have favorite stations which they like to watch. Some systems provide a channel skip function in which a viewer or user of the system can designate those channels that they prefer to view by selecting those channels from a displayed list of channels. Thereafter, using the channel “+” or “−” buttons, the user can sequentially view those selected channels.
Chilamakuri et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,414, disclose a channel selector for a television receiver for deselecting specified channels for a predetermined period of time. When a channel has been deselected it will be skipped when a user “surfs” through the sequence of channels. After the predetermined period of time expires the deselected channel is returned to the sequence of available channels. Channels may be deselected for time periods corresponding to a standard time slot, for example each half hour. Alternatively, channels may be deselected for periods corresponding to the actual length of the program determined from transmitted program scheduling data. While of some benefit to reduce the number of channels while the user channel surfs, the de-selection only lasts for a limited duration. Moreover, it is burdensome to manually de-select many channels from a selection of hundreds.
Atkinson, U.S. Pat. No. 6,084,644, discloses a television remote control with channel-defined keys. The remote control includes a plurality of control keys having a pair of volume keys for remotely controlling a volume of the television, and a pair of channel toggle keys for remotely changing channels of the television in an incrementing and decrementing manner. The remote control also includes a plurality of user keys configured in a matrix. Each user key effects the transmission of a signal to change the channel of the television to a predetermined channel associated with the user key. Each user key has indicia associated therewith which corresponds with the corresponding channel. While efficient after the user has gone through the arduous task of programming all the keys, it is quite burdensome to reprogram the keys each time the user's preferences change.
Blondstein, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,043 disclose a television (TV) graphical user interface (GUI) in a satellite TV system to enable users to create customized channel lists. Everyday, favorite and theme lists may be generated to respectively combine TV channels being watched regularly, favorite TV channels and channels relating to particular subjects. In a regular channel changer mode, the TV GUI displays graphical channel changer composed of channel boxes that show numbers and logos of available TV channels. To create a customized channel list, the TV GUI is switched into a change list content mode, wherein a channel grid is displayed in addition to the channel changer. Using a “drag and drop” procedure, graphical boxes corresponding to selected channel boxes may be moved from the channel changer to cells of the channel grid, to create a customized list of TV channels or to add new channels to an existing list. TV channels may be removed from the list by moving boxes that represent unwanted channels from the grid and placing them outside the grid area. TV channels may be put into the customized list in order of their priority established by the user. The position, graphical configuration and operations of the channel changer that represent the customized channel list remain unchanged compared with the channel changer in the regular channel changer mode. Accordingly, the user manually creates a favorites list which the user accesses through a set of actions.
Noguchi, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,426,779, disclose a line guide that provides the user of a multiple channel television broadcast system with programming information. The guide enables the user to select a particular program to watch. In particular, the system enables the user to scan program information of channels that the user has designated as his favorite channels. A button is provided that is designated as “favorite”. When the user is in a broadcast guide and selects the button, the system responds by displaying program information regarding the favorite stations at the top of the guide. Thus, the user sees at the top of the list the current programming with respect to his favorite stations, followed by program information for the remaining stations. Accordingly, the user manually creates a favorites list, and in response to pressing the button designated as “favorite” while browsing an electronic program guide, presents the list of favorites.
Sony, in a WEGA TV KV-32FS13, incorporates a favorite channel button on the remote control. The favorite channel functionality may alternatively be, access to any one of 5 programmed channels, or access to the last 5 channels that the user just watched or switched through.